


Reflections

by 13thSyndicate



Category: RWBY
Genre: Death Fic, F/M, I'll take "things I hate myself for writing" for 500 Alex, It's that fight, Pyrrha's PoV, Volume 3 Spoilers, Why did she do it, You know who dies in this, from Pyrrha's PoV, it was all for Jaune
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-10
Updated: 2017-06-10
Packaged: 2018-11-12 09:44:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11159313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/13thSyndicate/pseuds/13thSyndicate
Summary: People would ask themselves, later, as they sat in circles, holding hands, crying, what had made her go back.





	Reflections

People would ask themselves, later, as they sat in circles, holding hands, crying, what had made her go back. If Ozpin hadn't been able to stop Cinder, if she was so powerful, if she had true magic, what had possessed Pyrrha that made her think she could stop the raging Maiden? She should have run. Should have fled. Should have done anything but run up to the tower and gotten herself...

Jaune would ask himself for years if it was his fault, if he'd somehow driven her to do it. If only he'd been fast enough. If he hadn't turned around when he heard her scream. Echoes of the final kiss would replay themselves in his mind, over and over again, and echoes of the question Pyrrha would never be able to answer for him - "Why?"

If Cinder had asked the question - because it would have had to have been Cinder, because she was the only one who was there in time to ask - Pyrrha would have said she didn't know. But running, evacuating, staying behind - that is not what Huntresses do. Huntresses protect the ones they love, even if those 'ones' are dorky blonde boys who treat you just like everyone else and who wore dresses for you simply because he said he would.

When she saw Cinder, rising to the top of the tower, she had known she had to act. And Pyrrha Nikos, in that moment of extreme clarity, had known she would die doing so.

Despite what some people think, there was no atonement for Penny in her mind when she ran after the evil Fall Maiden. Nothing but duty, nothing but Ozpin's words ringing in her ears, nothing but Jaune and rooftop training sessions and hoping Ren would remind him to eat his vegetables and knowing beyond faith, beyond belief, beyond any earthly knowledge that this was a thing that _had_ to be done.

Of course, during the fight, she couldn't think of anything else. Distraction here would mean death sooner than planned, and maybe, just maybe, the small bit of the Maiden's power she had accepted would allow her to defeat Cinder. Against all odds.

The moment the arrow pierced her ankle, though, she knew she had lost. Pyrrha faced death like she faced any other defeat - with poise. With dignity. With faith.

Cinder asked her demanding questions, made her gloats. Pyrrha wondered what would happen if the last person in her thoughts were someone who could not receive the power. Did she even have any of it left to give? it didn't matter. She couldn't have turned her final thoughts away from Jaune even if she had wanted to. She fixed his face firmly in her mind, felt the burning pain in her chest, more acute than the physical pain she would feel a moment later as she realized she would never see him again, would never spend nights eating Ren's pancakes and listening to him yell at Nora for eating all the syrup out of the fridge. Tears threatened to well up in her eyes, but she controlled her crude emotions. Pyrrha Nikos, the Invincible Girl, would not cry before her foe.

Whatever echoes of the power that still lay in her felt something, felt... an answering echo, tiny, small, a simple thing.

Pyrrha found it in herself to smile at the woman who would surely be the one to kill her, and asked the words that had been echoing in her mind, echoing throughout her very soul. She looked Cinder straight in the eye and asked.

"Do you believe in destiny?"

A sharp pain. A blinding light.

Pyrrha Nikos was no more.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I know I'm (extremely) late to the party. I actually wrote this right after seeing the finale, but I just was not ready to post it then. I don't know if I'm ready to post it _now_ , but here I go anyway.


End file.
